Vegetable Tart

This isn't a typical vegetable tart, I wanted to make a chicken pie for the dinner so I took pastry from the freezer and when I got home, 8 hours later I realised I took out 2 pieces if puff pastry rather than 1 piece of puff pastry and 1 piece of shortcrust pastry. So I had to change my plans. I rolled out the pastry into a flan ring then I lined the centre with parchment paper and I attempted to keep the centre hollow by filling the ring with rice, it worked - surprisingly! So now I had what looked like a giant vol au vant without a top. Filled it with a cream sauce and vegetables and the vegetable tart was born.

This could do as a meal for a light lunch or a small dinner I served it as a vegetable side dish to chicken and potatoes and carrots. I'm only saying this as it would change your serving amount depending on what your using it for but as a vegetable accompaniment I'm going to say it serves 8.

600ml Milk

30g Butter

30g Flour

Salt and Pepper

80g Mature White Cheddar Grated

20ml of Cream (Optional)

Vegetables;

1/2 Red Pepper

1/4 of Broccoli (cut into small florets)

12 Mushrooms (Quartered)

Method;

1. Prepare the vegetables
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour (if you didn't already know this is called a roux)
3. Add the milk to the roux and whisk til smooth 
4. This should thicken nicely then add the vegetables and simmer gently season and take off the heat
5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees or gas mark 6
6. The pastry roll it out and line a flan ring then line the centre with parchment paper and fill with rice (don't worry this will not have an effect on the rice you can use it as normal after) and cook for 15 minutes remove the rice dock the bottom of the pastry with a fork and cook for a further 10 minutes.
7. Add the vegetable mix to the tart case and top with some grated cheese if you want it will crisp up a bit when you put it back in the oven to cook